After an all-night session, Rand Paul [R-KY] and Ron Wyden [D-OR] tag-teamed majority leader Mitch McConnell [R-KY] and beat him to the mat — he has abandoned the current legislative effort to extend section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes mass surveillance and is set to expire on June 1.

This was not what we expected — political handicappers had put safe money on some kind of compromise emerging from today’s session. With no such compromise in sight, McConnell will have to start over, twisting arms and knocking heads to get Congress to re-authorize another long stretch of unaccountable, secret mass surveillance. He’s got his work cut out for him as the Senate has adjourned until May 31 — 24 hours before the deadline.

SCOTT (すこっと)

Scott (すこっと) is a cyber security, threat intelligence strategist, and technology evangelist working and living in Tokyo. In addition to his day job, Scott is fascinated by the future of computing, the technology industry, privacy, encryption, mobile apps, politics, & Japan. Scott enjoys taking pictures with his iPhone and sharing them freely online, primarily on Instagram.